Details, details

In yesterday's post I mentioned how the architectural and other details on the buildings we saw were pretty fascinating all by themselves. As part of our continuing tour of Florence, I'll share a few close-ups with you. All of these items were found attached to, embedded in, or hanging on, buildings around Florence.

The Medici practiced embellishment with a capital E. I took it all in with a great sense of awe and wonder. Who thought of these things, and how did they come to be way up there? (Some of these items are 20 or 30 feet above street level.) Given the large number of tourist heads that block a clear sightline of just about everything at eye level, I was grateful that I could look up from time to time and forever capture just a little moment in Florence on film.

Tomorrow we'll go paper shopping in Florence. Bellissimo!

Fun in Florence!

After Monte Carlo, we sailed to Livorno, our first stop in Italy and the port for reaching Pisa and Florence. It would have been cool to see the Leaning Tower, but we opted to spend the full day in Florence instead, as it was our first visit ever to this magnificent city.

Being a tourist in Florence requires a little multitasking. First of all, you are walking all day on cobblestones and uneven bricks down narrow streets, often with little Italian cars and motor scooters whizzing right by your side, so you must pay attention to where you are putting your feet at every step. If you are on a tour, you are likely wearing what the tour guides call "the whisper," a small radio receiver around your neck, and a bluetooth wannabe looking earpiece on your head. To this you must add your camera (assuming you are the designated photographer, as I am), your bottle of water, and your purse or totebag, which must also be under your constant surveillance due to the abundance of pickpockets in heavily populated tourist areas. Whew! Add to this temperatures exceeding 100 degrees fahrenheit, no shady trees or benches, and you get the picture. It's not easy being a tourist.

But that doesn't stop us from coming. Florence was swarming with people at every corner and every attraction; tourists from every country in the world (and not, I might add, a whole lot of Americans this time), bus loads of high school and college age kids, bus loads from the cruise ships, throngs of people everywhere you go. The next time I do Florence (and other cities visited on this trip) I will go before June or after August, when both the crowds and the temperature have dropped to more comfortable levels.

This is the city of the Medici and grand high ornament carried to extreme. I found myself marveling at the architecture of larger structures, but totally captivated by the details. It is also the city of Michaelangelo, Dante, and Galileo and bigger than life sculptures and paintings that look oh, so familiar when you finally see them in real time.

Our day started with a walking tour to the Duomo (main cathedral), past artists' studios and other points of interest until we reached the Medici palace and the Uffizi museum. Adjacent is the Ponte Vecchio, a bridge that crosses the Arno River. Those charming little huts that seem to be stuck to the side of the bridge were the studios of the craftsmen in the days of the Medici rule.

We had some free time in the afternoon and were able to secure tickets to go inside the Uffizi gallery to see the paintings whose lectures I slept through as a freshman in Art History back in the day. (Class started at 8 am; by 8:20, when the lights went down for the slides, pretty much everyone was back to sleep until the lights came up again--guaranteed 40 minute power nap, three times a week.) There were so many, it was a bit overwhelming visually until we invented a little game called "find the book in the painting." And, by golly, we did find one or more books in just about every painting!

After two hours of uber-culture, we went out into the streets in search of paper and more architectural details to photograph. More on these topics tomorrow!

Monte Carlo Malaise

Our first port of call after Barcelona was Monte Carlo in Monaco. The country is so small it is nearly all visible at one glance, only a few miles wide and a mile or so deep, just like Munster, Indiana where I live. This is basically where the rich come to hang out when they just want to be one of the guys. Most of them, however, have vanished for the summer because Monaco, like most of the places we visited, is so awash in tourists it's hard to walk down the street, or even get to your yacht.

We chose to walk up from the dock to the Royal Palace, a trip that involved many, many, many staircases until we leveled off at the top. The city is spotless; no litter or graffiti here; everything, everywhere is freshly painted, neatly trimmed, highly polished, and very lush. This is the point at which you realize how brilliantly blue the Mediterranean is, even more so than the best photographs you've ever seen -- the color is quite remarkable. Flowers grow everywhere here, in an explosion of color across buildings, hillsides, balconies and in parks. I would say I could get used to this type of lifestyle, but I didn't see a single paper store anywhere, so it is definitely not going to work for me.

The palace lines the main square in the heart of town and is a beautiful, classic style building. Daily changing of the guard takes place just before noon; we missed it by a few minutes (it was those last few staircases that did us in) so the guard I photographed was fresh on the job and looking very buff. Other stops included the massive church where Prince Rainier and Princess Grace (Kelly) are buried; the royal crests shown here are engraved on their grave stones.

On a short train ride around town, we saw how the rich air their interesting laundry, and also where they grow those lovely Hermes scarves and handbags (oops, my bad).

Chicago had life size cow sculptures all over town in the 90's; Cincinnat had flying pigs,. Monaco has giant birds, including one on the palace balcony and others in various public spaces.

Monte Carlo is one of those places that makes for a nice day visit, although I don't think I will be going back again anytime soon. Too many other adventures await!

Street Art

Street graffiti and signs in Barcelona are nearly as fascinating as the architecture and market displays. Many of the shops have pull-down doors that have been painted by street artists, making for colorful walks down the side streets in the evening or early morning hours. Here are a few that I photographed, along with a mixture of street signs and commemorative tile plaques adhered to the sides of buildings along the way. Tomorrow's posts will move on to Monte Carlo, so enjoy your last day in Barcelona!

Barcelona Paper Shopping

I'm sure you guessed there would be paper shopping on this expedition. A week before we left, an article appeared in the New York Times with the headline Paper Too Beautiful To Use, going on and on about hand painted paper found in Madrid and made by an artist in Barcelona, followed by a store name and (conveniently!) an address. So off we went early one morning, in quest of the Beautiful, arriving just a few minutes before the store opened. I think the owner has seen this look of longing before; she appeared shortly thereafter and graciously opened the doors for me.

Once inside, I was awash in books and papers. Raima could be the Spanish equivalent of Paper Source here., a nice mixture of quality, mass produced journals, fine writing tools, note pads, pencils, markers, pens and desk accessories and, tucked away on the second story, floor to ceiling racks with large sheets of decorative papers of all kinds. The racks were so tall, you could not see the contents beyond your own height, but there were generously sized, nicely organized samples of each paper on the racks at eye level, and the staff was happy to retrieve any sheets not visible by using the ladder. I browsed all the sample selections, then made some choices of hand marbled papers and some exciting black and white screen print papers that I have not yet seen in the U.S. The handpainted Beautiful was nowhere to be found.

I pulled out my copy of the New York Times article and showed it to the clerk, whose English was very good, and inquired about the paper. He became very excited--it seems that the store owners had heard about the Times article but had not yet actually seen it. I told him he could make a copy of the article (and here come the NYT copyright lawyers swooping down on my blog, even as I write) which made him very happy. He made the copy, showed it to the owners, and came back with the sad news that alas, they do not carry, nor had they ever carried, the Paper Too Beautiful To Use. Had my husband been there at just that moment, there would have been the highly audible sigh of relief, as prices listed in the story said it was in the $25 to $60 per sheet range . So, let this be a lesson to you--just because you read something in the New York Times does not mean they check ALL the facts (and here come the lawyers again.......)

I also found an interesting tool at Raima, a huge wood folder, just like the one you see in the Josep Cambras books on bookbinding. I was hoping to find the spine former tool that he uses to round the backs of books, but no luck here. The lightweight wood folder is substantially larger than a standard bone folder; will try it out and let you know if it makes the next Top 10 Tool List.

Later in the day, we visited a large, covered market where everything looked like a photo in Gourmet or Bon Appetit magazine. Fruits and veggies in wildly saturated colors, fish with bright eyes, and bin after bin of olives, nuts, candies, smoked meats, eggs. Good thing we visited after lunch.

The papers travel with me in a large cardboard tube, about 3" in diameter and 24" long. I found on previous expeditions that I can get 30 to 40 sheets inside; they stay protected, and I can just carry them home on the plane. If I happen to reach the inside capacity of the tube, I can roll the extras around the outside and then place the whole tube in a long plastic bag with a carrying handle.

Gaudi's Barcelona

The main attraction, for me, in Barcelona was a chance to see the strange and wonderful architecture around the city created by Antonio Gaudi. Only a few hours after leaving the plane, we were walking to Sagrada Familia, the ginormous Church of the Holy Family begun in the late 1870's. Gaudi spent over forty years of his life on this project, living on site the last 12 years, and it is truly a sight to behold. Always, eternally still being constructed according to his directives, it doesn't appear it will be finished anytime soon, in my lifetime or yours. You can only marvel at the details; the building is so large you can't even take it in as a single image.

Our next Gaudi stop was Casa Batllo, an apartment building that must have been the talk of the town back in the day. This is another decorative wonder on steroids, inside and out, with colorful glass and flowing wood shapes throughout the building. The idea behind the design was to create the feeling of water in color, design and light. A fabulous sculptural garden crowns the flat roof with colorful mosaics. It all looks so contemporary; yet it is a hundred years old.

The final Gaudi stop was La Pedrera, a much larger apartment building that covers an entire city block. Although the outside appearance is less decorative than Casa Batllo, the inside is once again fabulous, and yet another rooftop garden with multiple sculptures reached by staircases on many levels is your reward for reaching the top. Built in 1906-1912, one of the apartments inside is open for touring, and I was amazed at how trusting the Spanish must be, to allow so many visitors to see the contents with very few constraits and protective devices in place. This makes for great photographs when you don't have to shoot through glass or from behind ropes.

And yes, there were a few books on the desk in the apartment (you knew there would be a book in here, somewhere).

Such an exciting and beautiful start to our big adventure, but of course there was more to come. We'll check out Barcelona shopping for paper in the next post!

Back from the high seas

I know, I know, you're grown very weary of being greeted by steel bars when you log on here. I've just returned from a fabulous trip throughout the Mediterranean, so that's my excuse. Too busy taking photos and having fun to blog, and we have a family pact that computers do not go on vacation with us!

Outside the U.S., our first landing was in Switzerland, where we spent an hour running from one airline terminal to another. Saw some great watches in the windows as we sprinted by. From there we were on to Barcelona, Spain where we spent the next few days prior to the departure of our cruise. Our ports of call were Monte Carlo (Monaco), Livorno/Florence and Naples (Italy), Mykonos and Athens (Greece), Istanbul and Kusadasi/Effesus (Turkey), ending in beautiful Venice. Coming home, we did another one hour sprint through Frankfort, Germany where both we and our luggage made the connection. Amazing! When the dust settled, I found I had 0ver 1600 photos on the camera and a few things to share on the blog. I'll be posting the best for you over the next several weeks; it's the least I can do after leaving you alone with Superman for the past month!

This photo was taken just across the street from our hotel in Barcelona, It's the biggest book I ever saw, an outdoor sculpture piece on permanent display there. A great way to begin the adventure -- I took it as a sign of things to come!